1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a method and system of encrypting a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag using a broadcast encryption (BE) scheme. More particularly, the present invention relates to an RFID tag encryption method and system using a BE scheme by encrypting an ID of an RFID tag, storing the encrypted ID in a server and the RFID tag, and storing information relating to a reader authorized to read out the RFID tag in the server so that the reader can read out the RFID tag by decrypting the encrypted ID based on the encrypted ID information read from the RFID tag and the reader information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, the RFID technique is used to identify a person or objects an RFID tag is attached to within a short distance of about 1 meter without requiring physical contact. The RFID tag is attached to entities such as assets, animals and persons to allow a reader coupled to a host computer to automatically identify or track the entities. Mostly, the RFID tag contains programmed information of an object and the programmed information is attached to the object.
The RFID includes a receiver, transmitter in various types, antenna, and memory. The RFID tag is capable of transmitting, receiving and storing entity ID data with respect to a remote base station using its components.
However, when the reader reads out the ID data from the RFID tag, unintended information may be leaked out to other readers.
To record the ID data, the RFID tag needs to occupy a memory area more than a certain size. If an attacker conducts an access lock on the RFID tag, it is impossible to use the RFID tag.
If the RFID tag is applied to the merchandise flow system, when an attacker continuously sends random information to the reader from malice, the reader is likely to retry to identify the RFID tag according to a collision avoidance algorithm without reading out necessary information from the RFID tag.
Therefore, a need arises for the encryption of the RFID tag for the sake of privacy.